Guts
A fast, high-variance dealer's-choice staple: everyone gets a few cards, then privately decides in or out — those who stay and lose match the pot.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Guts is dealt quickly and repeats in escalating rounds rather than following the streets-and-showdown structure of stud or draw poker. In the most common version (three-card guts), every player is dealt three cards face down after an ante from each player into the pot.
Decision: Without any betting round, every player simultaneously reveals whether they're "in" or "out" for that round, usually by a hidden signal (e.g., holding chips in a closed fist, or all showing thumbs up/down at once) so no one can react to others' decisions.
Showdown among "in" players: the best three-card hand (usually ranked similar to the top three cards of a poker hand — pair, then high card, sometimes with straights/flushes if the table agrees) wins the whole pot. Every other player who was "in" but didn't win must match the pot, adding that same amount back in for the next round.
Escalation: because losers must match the pot (not just lose their ante), the pot can grow very quickly over a few rounds, making Guts one of the highest-variance dealer's-choice games. A new hand is dealt each round with the growing pot until someone wins it outright with only one player choosing "in" that round.
Strategy notes: Since there's no betting to signal information, the entire skill of Guts is in the "in or out" decision itself — knowing the rough odds that your hand is good enough given how many players are likely to stay in, and being willing to fold decent hands once the pot (and thus the cost of losing) gets large.
Common house rules
Five-card Guts
Some tables deal five cards instead of three (using full standard hand rankings, including straights and flushes) for a slower, less wild version of the same in-or-out mechanic.
Double Guts / two losers match
A common escalation rule has the two lowest 'in' hands (not just all non-winners) match the pot, making the game even more explosive as more players stay in each round.
No-pair minimum to play
To slow down runaway pots, some home games require at least a pair to legally declare 'in', with anything worse forced to fold regardless of what the player wants to do.
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